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New Dimensions
'''New Dimensions 'is the eleventh episode of the first season of [[The Orville|''The Orville]]. An encounter with a bizarre spatial anomaly damages the [[USS Orville|USS Orville]], which is left stranded in space. Meanwhile, Chief Engineer Steve Newton departs the Orville and Captain Ed Mercer must decide who to promote to Newton's empty seat. The episode was written by Seth MacFarlane, considered a strong character-developing episode centered around Navigator John LaMarr. Kelly Cronin directed and Andrew Cottee composed the score, New Dimensions being the only episode they worked on in these roles. Teaser Fox released a 30 second promotional teaser on November 16, 2017. Commander Kelly Grayson asks LaMarr and Helmsman Gordon Malloy: "At any point, did you consider the possibility that what you did was stupid?" To which LaMarr and Malloy hesitantly reply "no." Scenes of action play and a narrator says, "On the next all-new Orville, the crew enters a dimension unlike anything they've seen before." Doctor Claire Finn sees something off camera (the dead Horbalak smuggler Blavaroch) and says, "Oh, my God." More action sequences fly by (some from previous episodes) and Mercer concludes, "Alright, let's move fast." Plot Synopsis Act 1 The crew of the Orville gathers in the Mess Hall for a good-bye party for Lieutenant Commander Newton, leaving the ship to design a space station under the Planetary Union. Meanwhile, Malloy and LaMarr snicker place a piece of Lieutenant Yaphit's body into the nearby buffet. Yaphit feels discomfort after losing a piece of his own body and goes to Sick Bay to see Doctor Finn. Second Officer Bortus enters and complains of "digestive discomfort." The trio figure out that Bortus ate a piece of Yaphit, and that Malloy and LaMarr are likely responsible. Commander Grayson scolds LaMarr and Malloy and places formal reprimands on each of their records. While looking at their personnel files she pauses, stunned: "You got to be kidding me." Act 2 Grayson goes to Captain Mercer and shows him LaMarr's academic background. LaMarr's achievements at Union Point were "off the charts." Grayson suggests LaMarr be promoted to Newton's old position of Chief Engineer. Mercer concedes that LaMarr is brilliant, perhaps the most intelligent member of the crew after Isaac, but also inexperienced and immature. Suddenly, the ship is rocked by a spatial anomaly. The ship is partially damaged. With Mercer's blessing, Grayson assigns LaMarr to work with Isaac is assigned to scan the anomaly to study and map it. LaMarr and Isaac find Yaphit and the three begin scanning the ship for structural damage from the anomaly. Oddly, they find that plants in a room of the ship have died. Grayson petitions Mercer again to promote LaMarr. Mercer had chosen Yaphit, but Grayson convinces him to give LaMarr a chance to prove himself. However, Grayson slips that she asked Admiral Halsey to promote Mercer to Captain of the Orville, which wounds Mercer's pride. She apologizes for not telling him the truth and leaves, but the damage to their professional relationship was done. Act 3 "Look, I don't want to mince words . . . I just want to know the truth," a distraught Mercer petitions Halsey by call. Halsey assures him that, while Grayson did recommend Mercer, he has proven himself qualified for the job. LaMarr is then called into Grayson's office where she assigns him control of the Science and Engineering task force to study the spatial anomaly. She asks why he does not "make productive use" of his intelligence. LaMarr insists that he wants simple life free of stress and worries. Meanwhile, on the main deck, the crew tries to warn a Horbalak ship to avoid the spatial anomaly, but its Captain is convinced the Union ship is lying. The Horbalak ship passes through the anomaly: its power dead and no life signs read. A small away team enters the ship by shuttle only to find the Captain dead. Act 4 On the Horvalac ship Ed, Kelly and Claire find the Captain deceased and Alara tracks down a huge crate full of stolen Krill weapons. John nervously stands outside the Engineering deck until being approached by Gordon Malloy, who notices his friend's discomfort. He encourages him to do what he did when he worked at a summer camp on Earth as a teenager. Give gumdrops to workers and only let them eat it after they reveal something "interesting" about themselves. John finally enters and tries to play the game but it's not followed appropriately. Yaphit even lashing out at John saying they should be working instead of fooling around. He agrees and they all begin to research the Anomaly & Wake to find out what's wrong. John figuring out that the "Anomaly" is actually a doorway to another reality. He explains to the rest of the crew that the doorway is an opening to a two-dimensional reality, and that when the Horvalac Captain accidentally approached it was killed due to being a three-dimensional being and it's organs respectively crushed. Bortus on the main deck informs the Orville that Krill ships are coming to reclaim their stolen goods, realizing they will likely show extreme hostility to a Union ship Ed Mercer says they need to escape soon but can't since the engines still are not aligned. John offers that they go through the doorway and that they use a Quantum Bubble to keep them three-dimensional inside the reality, seeing little choice he agrees to let it be done. The engineer's plan works and the entire crew stares in awe at the two-dimensional universe, noting that they as three-dimensional beings are entirely invisible to the native populace. Ed sits in the lounge while Kelly approaches him, he talks about his discontentment with her recommending him for his position but Kelly starts to become frustrated explaining how everything he does is just the result of something else and that it's pointless to discredit his position just because of a small detail regarding how it was given to him. The Orville suddenly then starts to experience friction as the Bubble begins to give out, after being commanded to leave Gordon says the doorway is now closed. Isaac and John LaMarr through The Orville's technology find what could be another doorway on the other side of the two-dimensional reality, Ed says that won't be enough since the engines are still not functioning to full capacity. John explains that he might be able to create a new bubble around a shuttlecraft which he can use to drag The Orville over over to the doorway and free them before the ship gives out. Captain Mercer and him prepare to do just that while some engineers snicker about Yaphit and his role in getting the ship into this predicament. John hushes them explaining he's the leader of the Task Force and approved the call, just more proof he shouldn't be in this role. John and Ed leave in a shuttle protected by a Quantum Bubble and begin dragging the ship to the nearest anomaly back to the three-dimensional universe, with the two of them talking and Captain Mercer officially offering the Chief Engineer position. Before John can respond the Bubble begins to give out as per before and the two of them are almost killed but manage to go warp speed and get everyone to safety in their three-dimensional reality. Ed then proceeds to touch base with Kelly and apologizes for his behavior before insisting he should've thanked her for all she's done for him, not criticize and resent her for it. John also goes back to the engineering deck and begins to confidently gives orders to each worker. Embracing his new position as Chief of Engineering. Cast Main Cast * Seth MacFarlane as Capt. Ed Mercer * Adrianne Palicki as Cmdr. Kelly Grayson * Penny Johnson Jerald as Dr. Claire Finn * Scott Grimes as Lt. Gordon Malloy * Peter Macon as Lt. Cmdr. Bortus * Halston Sage as Lt. Alara Kitan * J. Lee as Lt. Cmdr. John LaMarr * Mark Jackson as Isaac * Chad L. Coleman as Klyden Guest Cast * Larry Joe Campbell as Steve Newton * Dan J. Evans as Engineer #1 * Michael J. Sielaff as Palovis * BJ Tanner as Marcus Finn * Paul Vogt as Horbalak Captain * Kai Wener as Ty Finn Trivia * Ed finds out that Kelly recommended him for the role as captain of the Orville. * A possible continuity error occurs in this episode in comparison to Episode 8: Into the Fold, where the shuttle used in this episode, ECV-197-1 was seemingly destroyed in Episode 8. However in that episode, there was a production error, showing both ECV-197-1 and ECV-197-2 both being the shuttle that crashed. That may indicate that a new shuttle with the same registration replaced the crashed one, or that ECV-197-2 was the shuttle that crashed. * The notion of a quantum bubble is first introduced in Old Wounds where it was used to help describe the way the temporal ray warps time within it. In New Dimensions, a quantum bubble is used to maintain 3d space within the 2d space rift they encounter. Category:Episodes